{"id":8296,"date":"2021-10-01T14:28:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T12:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempco.it\/blog\/?p=8296"},"modified":"2021-10-01T14:28:43","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T12:28:43","slug":"pipings-and-industrial-plants-be-aware-of-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tempco.it\/blog\/en\/8296\/pipings-and-industrial-plants-be-aware-of-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Pipings and industrial plants, be aware of ice!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The season is still being warm, but as usual during this period of the year is a good thing to talk about water and freeze<\/strong> in cooling equipments. As we all know, water is a peculiar fluid, which has a different behavior compared to other common fluids: when it freezes, water decreases its density<\/strong>, therefore expanding.<\/p>\n

It happens because when water solidifies, ice particles acquire an hexagonal shape forming a precise geometrical configuration, which decreases density while increasing the volume<\/strong>. That’s the reason why ice floats over water at liquid state.<\/p>\n

This phenomenon of volume increase its quite curious, but it can also be very dangerous for pipings and industrial plants<\/strong>, tanks or containers with fixed volumes. When water freezes and expands, they break. There are several cases of heat exchangers<\/strong><\/a> broken by frozen water.<\/p>\n

How to prevent troubles? Clearly adding glycol<\/a> to the water in industrial plants<\/strong> installed outdoor, that can reach extremely cold temperatures during the winter season. Or when fluids in the plant are cooled by a chiller<\/strong><\/a> at low temperatures near zero or below 0\u00b0 C.<\/p>\n